Little by little I am learning my way around Lučenec, by traveling with others and venturing out on my own. On Wednesday, I usually work in a village called Vel'ka Nad Iplom, about 10km south of Lučenec. This Wednesday, I took the bus by myself for the first time and accidentally missed my stop. Instead, I got off in Trenč, a tiny village on the Hungarian border. I asked the busdriver in my stumbling Slovak "Did I miss Vel'ka?" "Yes", he replies. "Will another bus come?" "Yes", he replies again. "Wait on the other side of the street". So that I did. It was about 4pm and the next bus was scheduled to come at 4:30pm.
When five o clock rolled around and there was no bus in sight, I asked an old woman walking by if she knew how often the bus came... She had no idea, but was a sweet woman and talked about the weather with me. (She noted that it was particularly cold that day - something I knew very well by that point, standing under the tin shack of a bus stop) As another person walked by, they started up a conversation in Hungarian, presumably about me since, I heard "Vel'ka Nad Iplom" multiple times. In southern Slovakia, there are many towns where the majority of the population speaks Hungarian as well as Slovak (or sometimes
only Hungarian). She turned back to me, said "Prepač moja, nevieme", and slowly kept on walking. They didn't know.
I wandered back over to the bus schedule to find that the next bus wouldn't come until 6:30pm. I decided, then, to call a friend to come pick me up instead of waiting another hour and a half. I pulled out my phone to realize that it wouldn't work because I was so close to the Hungarian border. I tried anyways and failed. Looking around me, I decided that I could either wait outside til 6:30 or I could try to find a phone. Since the 4:30 bus never came, I was a bit skeptical about this 6:30 bus and decided to hunt down a phone.
Now, when you stand at the bus stop in Trenč, you are in almost the exact center of the town. I know this, because it consists of one main road, and the bus stop is about halfway down that road. From the stop, you can see both ends of the town on either side of you... probably a 5 minute walk from one to the other. So, where to find a phone? Besides houses, it appeared that Trenč consists of 1 school, 1 church, 1 small grocery store, and 1 bar. Everything was closed, except the bar. I poked my head into a tiny, smoke-filled bar and waited in line to see if there was a phone available. The bartender let me use his phone, but my friend didn't pick up. I left a message and waited outside a bit longer. As it got too cold and windy to stand outside, I headed back to the bar and asked the bartender if I could sit inside and wait. He happily let me sit and we chatted for a while before a group of people came in and he returned to work. I studied Slovak as my hands thawed out and the man next to me played on the lone slot machine for the next hour or so.
Needless to say, it was an interesting experience and I don't think I will ever let myself miss the stop for Vel'ka again. The bus did finally arrive (closer to 6:50, but at least it came!) and I went straight home. All in all, the conversations I had and the smiles I got from people who I chatted with made my three-hour adventure in Trenč a little warmer on that cold, October day.
